Pressure has been building to develop the woods and meadow adjacent to Guggenheim School for athletic fields. This land, known as the Guggenheim Preserve, has been a meadow for its entire recorded history. While proponents are willing to overlook the unique character of this irreplaceable parcel, we believe that development would be an outrage and a tragedy.

Demands for more athletic fields must be balanced against other values. Among the reasons we oppose developing the Guggenheim Preserve are these:

* When virtually every component of our local property taxes is going up - school, police, county - is this the time to spend a minimum of $800,000 to develop athletic fields? (And that's not to mention the ongoing maintenance costs.)

* The fields at Sousa and Guggenheim schools have not been optimized to develop the maximum number of playing fields possible. This should be done before habitat destruction is considered.

* The existing school fields are overcrowded in part because of the district's no-cut policy at Weber. Maybe we should re-examine that policy before asking taxpayers to foot yet another costly capital project.

* The probable development by the Town of North Hempstead of additional athletic fields on the nearby Morewood property could ease pressure on school fields. Any consideration of developing the Preserve should be postponed until the Morewood parcel is fully developed.

* The traffic and parking impact would be enormous on a neighborhood that, like only a few others in town, already bears a disproportionate burden related to school and athletic activities.

* The Preserve is a publicly accessible part of the shrinking open space in Port Washington. It is one of the few true meadows left on Long Island. Those who see it as vacant, empty, useless space are welcome to join us on an early-morning walk through the land, where we and others who love nature have spotted nightingales, orioles, warblers, purple finches, and hawks diving for their prey. Few of these creatures can be spotted elsewhere on the peninsula. Lawns and athletic fields are not the same thing as a meadow. If this habitat is destroyed, the meadow ecosystem will vanish. This property should be properly maintained and used for environmental education.

Finally, sacrificing an irreplaceable resource for public-school purposes may be ill-advised, but making such a sacrifice to accommodate private sports clubs needs to be explained by supporters of the plan who sit on the school board.

Craig Werle

Barbara Selvin Werle